Aluminum Tooling Wear
Aluminum Tooling Wear
(OP)
I have a part that's been in production for a few years. Its made out of a 35% glass filled Zytel. The mold tooling is aluminum. The last shipment of parts we got in were fine and now there is one feature on our part that is out of tolerance (by about 0.003" on a .750" diameter bore) on the parts they are making for us right now. Our supplier says there is material wear on the aluminum tool. Does anybody know if it is pretty common for a tool to just all of a sudden show signs of wear? I was kind of expecting the tool to wear down more gradually than that. Is this typical?






RE: Aluminum Tooling Wear
He was never able to predict, or willing to guarantee, how many parts a given mold would produce before needing work; he said sometimes a few hundred, sometimes thousands, and then something would wear.
His way of dealing with the problem was what you might call lamellar molds. E.g. instead of sinking a blind cavity into a monolithic block, he would bolt and dowel together a plate with a through hole, and a plain plate, and so forth. So he could remove and replace single features of the mold. Each mold had many components, all of relatively simple geometry, all machined to precise tolerances, and all replaceable.
My hypothesis is that machining aluminum work-hardens the surface, ever so slightly, to a very shallow depth, just as an artifact of the cutting process, and not overtly controlled. When that 'skin' wears away, it exposes the softer aluminum underneath, which wears at a much higher rate and becomes noticeable in short order.
You could disprove my hypothesis if you can find parts from prior lots that exhibit gradual wear of the feature in question. I don't think you will.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Aluminum Tooling Wear
----------------------------------------
The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.
RE: Aluminum Tooling Wear
Dan - Owner
http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com
RE: Aluminum Tooling Wear
Paul Kuklych